Seen...

The tooth fairy left $1 and a note of her own...

Dear [J-Mav] ~
Lost teeth count, too.
Love, Tooth Fairy

Seen...

J-Mav left a note for the Tooth Fairy last night...

Dear Tooth Fairy ~
My tooth fell out. I lost it.
Love, [J-Mav]

A man of few words, my son. I'm surprised he didn't add a third sentence: "Please leave dollars."

Frankenfoot

The Tuesday after my surgery, I was feeling good. Not a lot of pain, just some aches. I got a little cocky and told the doctor that I was doing great! He said that was great and scheduled an appointment for this past Thursday to get at least some of my stitches out.

By the next day, my foot was starting to hurt more again. Mostly in the first several steps I would take after getting up. And the bruising. It was an ever-moving collage of purples around my foot.

When I got to the doctor on Thursday, I was hopeful that I would get all the stitches out. He took out half of them. Better than nothing. But then he was pressing on various spots around my foot and around the incision, and when he pressed on one certain spot, it hurt so much, I thought Dr. G was going to have to peel me off the ceiling.

His reaction: "Hmmm. That's not great."

He said the incision looked good and he didn't SEE any sign of infection, but because of my reaction, he was going to put me on 10 days of antibiotics. He had me schedule another appointment for Tuesday (tomorrow... or, technically, later this morning at this point) to get the rest of the stitches out and sent me on my way.

Well, by the next night, my foot felt like it had been replaced by a new and improved frankenfoot! The initial steps pain was gone and I could walk pretty normally without the surgical shoe on. It remained fine through the weekend.

And today. Today I wore a sneaker! Correction. Today I wore a PAIR of sneakers! Granted, I took the lace out of the one on Frankenfoot. But I had a real shoe on my foot and I was able to walk normally and pain-free! That's A LOT of progress from where I was mid-week last week, so I'm thinking there must have been something to the infection theory.

So, tomorrow I get the rest of my stitches out. And I can then take a shower without wrapping my foot in plastic! Woo hoo!! Happy Thanksgiving to me!! I go back to see Dr. G NEXT Tuesday, just to make sure all is healing up well, I guess. I would assume at that point I'll be able to resume all normal activity as is comfortable.

I NEED to get back to walking and doing some stuff on the Wii Fit. If I don't, I'm going to be living in yoga pants and my skirts with elastic waists...

Heard...

We called Uncle Hooter, Jenrie, and Spidey last night as this morning they boarded a plane to their new home (for the next three years) in Hawaii. While J-Mav was talking to Spidey, Spidey said something along the lines of:

"You can come over and play with me if your mom and dad say it's okay. We can go on the beach and make sand castles."

As though Hawaii is right down the street. I wish!!

Creepy Crawlies

We have issues with bugs in our office building -- particularly in the late afternoon when the sun hits the windows on the side of the building in which my office resides. The warm sun seems to bring out the flies. From where, I do not know.

Today the insects got a bit of an early start. I have been interrupted multiple times by various buzzing. Some buzzing (wasps) is more alarming than other buzzing (flies).

Here's today's tally (with more than an hour to go before I leave):
- 5 flies
- 3 wasps
- 3 lady bugs
- 2 very ugly beetle-looking things

Supposedly some kind of bug inspector is coming tomorrow to see if he can't find the source of our problem. (It's not just me... my boss's office next door has bugs, too.)

Anyone have a ginormous fly swatter?

Weekend update

What a great weekend! Friday night Keeper Boy had a sleepover at our Godson's house, and Hubby, J-Mav, and I went to Red Robin for dinner (J-Mav's choice). Hubby and I were rewarded for agreeing to the choice when we discovered the gingerbread shakes have arrived!! Score!! After dinner, we came home and watched the Caps game while hovered around Hubby's laptop since it was broadcast on CSN+ and we don't get that channel. :-(

Saturday I ventured out shopping with BFF. She was so good to me... dropping me off at the front door of The Cheesecake Factory and other various stores, and walking real slow wherever we went. Luckily we brought along a pair of crutches so I could still walk "normally" but not put my full weight on Frankenfoot. I think that helped A LOT because I lasted almost five hours!! We had a great afternoon.

By the time we got back to her house, Hubby and J-Mav were there (and Keeper Boy had been there for the sleepover). We all hung out and had dinner and watched the Caps game. J-Mav was going to have a sleepover on Saturday night, but decided he didn't want to stay. So we all came home after the Caps game was over.

This morning, Keeper Boy had a game against his old team. He was in net and they got pummeled. He was pulled part-way through the first period -- a first for him. The coach told him to get himself together because he was going back in at the beginning of the second period. He did and he played much better for the last two periods; however, you'd not know it by the final score. He was still beating himself up over some of the goals well after he went to bed, as he came downstairs to discuss them with me. Sigh.

Hubby did the grocery shopping again this week. I think I'll be able to resume that duty next weekend. :) After putting the groceries away, Hubby went into the office for a few hours. The boys played outside; I sat on the sofa and watched football. I grilled out for dinner. It was too gorgeous not to. Hubby had a hockey game tonight; I had my Sunday night shows to watch. Now, it's bedtime.

Great weekend!! Next weekend: J-Mav and I are headed to PA to see my niece's school production of The Wizard of Oz.

Seen...

Driving by the local Methodist church yesterday afternoon, I saw this on the sign board in the front (or something very similar... I'm not sure I remember it exactly).

God is a Redskins fan, so think of how much he must love you.

Frankenfoot

Update...

I just sat down on the sofa to prop my foot up. I haven't had my sock or special shoe off all day, and I didn't have my foot propped up much today, either. I might regret that. My toes are now purple, too. The toes themselves are a light purple. The base of my toes are a dark, reddish purple.

Pretty.

Frankenfoot

The forecast for today, Friday the 13th, is some swelling with a smattering of bruising and slight pain in certain situations.

Yes, my ankle is still more of a cankle.

Yes, the entire back, outer part of my foot is still a lovely shade of purple.

Yes, it has hurt more since Tuesday than it did the day after surgery or the four days right after that.

Yes, I'm still taking regular and copiuos amounts of Motrin.

So I guess I shouldn't have been bragging so much Friday through Tuesday that my foot didn't hurt. At all. In hindsight, that was probably because I didn't really leave the sofa nest until Tuesday morning. I doubt it's coincidence that Frankenfoot has been "talking" A LOT more ever since I resumed walking on it. It mostly feels better when I am able to sit or lie down and put it up. It mostly feels okay once I'm up and moving around a bit, unless I move certain ways or accidently kick something, which has happened on more than one occasion. It mostly feels really bad when I put my foot down on the ground after having it up, as the blood returns to the foot. And it mostly feels really bad when I first get up from sitting or lying down. But, Motrin helps and it's not unbearable pain. Just quick suck you're breath in pain, for the most part, and then it's better.

So Frankenfoot is doing okay, but there's definite room for improvement!

Thank you!

Today I thank all veterans past and present who do what they do (or did what they did) to protect the freedoms we enjoy every day.

Frankenfoot

Update... much Motrin today in response to the ice cube tray incident of last night. But feeling better than I did at this time last night.

Tonight when I sat down on the sofa to watch the Caps game, I kind of propped Frankenfoot up sideways on a pile of pillows such that my arch side of the foot was down and the outside part of the foot -- the side with the stitches -- was up. I guess I hadn't had it propped exactly like that since I got the smaller bandage because HOLY CRAP! My entire outer ankle is PURPLE!

Um, no wonder Frankenfoot feels like a big bruise... it IS!!

Seen...

A breaking news ticker went across the screen about a half hour ago announcing that John Allen Muhammed was executed.

One man held an entire metropolitan area hostage for three weeks in 2002, forcing schools to keep students inside for recess and making people afraid to get out of their cars to get gas, walk into a store, or let their children play outside. Tonight he paid for it.

Thinking...

Oh my HECK... it does NOT feel good to have an entire tray of already-frozen ice cubes fall out of the freezer right on top of where the incision is on my Frankenfoot.

Tinkering

Just picked a new template for my blog page. Got tired of the old one.

Frankenfoot

First off, this is what my foot looked like from about Noon on Friday until late this morning. The bandage was ginormous and wrapped all the way up around my ankle. It left a lot to the imagination about what was actually going on under there... but I wasn't allowed to peek until I went back to the doctor this morning. Like Christmas... do not open until...

So this morning I went to see my surgeon, Dr. G. I found that I was more nervous about this appointment than I had been about the surgery. OK. Maybe not MORE... but at least as much. What if the scar was huge? What if the bandage stuck to the incision and it hurt when he took it off? What if, what if, what if? Luckily I didn't have to wait to long to see the doctor once I got there, so I didn't have time to work myself up too much. :-)

He unwrapped what seemed like miles of ace bandage, tape, and gauze and revealed... FRANKENFOOT!

The incision, as you can see, IS quite large. Lots of stitches inside and outside. Turns out he found more than he bargained for when he got in there. First off, the cyst was growing toward my toes instead of toward my ankle, as he had thought. Second, it was under a tendon and pushing up on a muscle, making the muscle bulge. And lastly, as an added extra bonus, he found a bone spur under all of it, which is what likely caused the cyst in the first place. Ding, ding... we have a winner! Lucky me!

So it's a little swollen, a little bruised, a little stained with the stuff they clean the area with before surgery. In short, a little gross.

And what of all the "ink" you might be asking. Well, in pre-op, I was told to write "yes" on the ankle of the foot I was having operated on. When the doctor came in to talk to me before surgery, he initialed the top of my foot to confirm my choice of feet. I guess this is a CYA measure to ensure the doctor doesn't slice into the wrong foot. That would be bad. The smiley face... well, that was Dr. G making fun of me. He laughed at me when I took my Blackberry out to take a picture of my foot before he re-bandaged it. So he added the smiley face and told me to go ahead and take the picture.

Then he re-bandaged. Smaller and pink! Practical AND stylish. He gave me a choice of pink or green... both were the bright colors of the 80s. Perhaps I should've chosen BOTH and made my foot look like a watermelon? Anyway, this bandage stays on until next Thursday, when I got back to have at least some of the stitches removed. Still can't get it wet, which means at least another 10 days of shower aerobics and bagging and taping. And the oh-so-stylish shoe, which you can see in the picture above, is a new fixture in my life... at least for the next month or so.

And now Frankenfoot and I are back on the sofa. The sofa nest will be dismantled after today. Life resumes to mostly normal tomorrow. Back to work on Thursday. It was fun while it lasted...

Thinking...

It's pretty darn cool that I went out to lunch to two friends today wearing capri pants and flip flops. On November 9th. Yes, it's THAT warm.

Well, flip flop (singular) if you want to get technical... I suppose the surgical shoe qualifies as a sandal since it is open-toe. An extremely unattractive sandal, but a sandal nonetheless...

Survival

This morning I accomplished great things... I double-bagged and taped my foot/leg, got into the shower without killing myself, got showered, SHAVED MY LEGS (at least the parts that weren't covered in plastic and tape), AND got back out of the shower without killing myself. Quite an accomplishment, no?

Inventory

In no particular order, here are the things I have been surrounded with in my sofa nest for the weekend.

• Fleece blanket
  
• Pile of pillows
  
• Bottles of water
  
• Cans of Diet Coke
  
• Chapstick
  
• Catalogs
  
• Television remote (and DVD remote and cable remote)
  
• Notepad
  
• Bottle of Tylenol III
  
• Bottle of Motrin
  
• Dayplanner
  
• Laptop
  
• Cell phone
  
• Blackberry
  
• House phone
  
• Books (three of them)
  
• Tissues
  
• Pens
  
• Cupcakes
  
• Cookies
  
• Tootsie rolls
  
• Rice Krispie Treat
  
• Briefcase
  
• Purse
  
• Bag for trash and food wrappers

I think that about covers it. I can conquer the world from my sofa nest!!

Thinking...

Thank God for wireless Internet!

I have, for the most part, been sitting or lying on the sofa since about Noon on Friday. The "sofa nest" is well-stocked, and at a perfect viewing angle to the flat screen, but there's really nothing on TV during the day. Nothing. OK, today there was football.

So, I've caught up on the last two episodes of Grey's Anatomy, the last two episodes of Brothers & Sisters, and the last two episodes of Desperate Housewives. I've spent a lot of time on Facebook. I've done some Christmas shopping. I've read CNN.com. A lot.

I wouldn't have been able to do any of that without my laptop and my wireless Internet connection.

So, while a nice visit from my BFF yesterday made my day, and getting out of the house for a few hours today (for the first time since I came home from the surgical center) for my goddaughter's birthday party was awesome, I don't know what else I'd have been doing all weekend without the Internet!

I don't know how my dad did it all those years ago when he had back surgeries and had to be in bed for DAYS with no computer, let alone wireless Internet. Progress rocks!

That was that

I am home and snuggly ensconsed (sp?) in my "sofa nest" (and have been since about Noon). The surgery went fine. The only snafu was that since I was somewhat dehydrated (yes, I KNOW I don't drink enough water), the nurse couldn't get the IV in the back of my hand. The vein kept rolling/ receding/ something. (I'm sure I'll have a lovely bruise from that.) She was very nice, she just couldn't get the needle in my vein. She finally called someone else in, who had no trouble getting a vein on the side of my wrist (and I should think not considering how tight she had the piece of rubber tied just above my elbow). I was visited in the prep area by two anesthesioligists, an anesthesiology nurse, my doctor, and three other nurses. They wrote "yes" on my left foot and the doctor initialed it. Liability CYA, I guess. I've heard of too many people who had the wrong limb amputated! Anyway, I confirmed my name, birthday, and what I was there for about 17 times, and then I was walked back to my OR and Hubby went out to the waiting area to ... well, wait.

I laid down on the operating table, which was only about as wide as was and hoped I didn't do a big twitch while I was out or I might have ended up on the floor! They strapped my arms out to my sides and put something in my IV to relax me. Didn't feel any difference. Then she said she was going to put the actual sleepy stuff in there momentarily. Missed that part. :)

I was under "twilight" anesthesia, so there's always the chance that you'll wake up during the procedure. I did wake up toward the end and had a conversation with whomever with in the room. I really remember what we talked about, other than the fact that I made a comment that I could feel I had a sock on my foot so the bandage must not be too big. Some replied that, um, no... there was no sock and my foot was still numb. Oh well. In my defense all of this conversing was going on with my eyes closed.

Anyway, I was chatting away and the next thing I knew, I was in the recovery area. Guess I went sleepy again for a few minutes. The nurse asked if I had to use the restroom, and I did. Not shocking since they pumped a few liters of fluid in me during the 90-minute procedure. They put a lovely orthopedic shoe on my foot and I hobbled to the bathroom, where I almost fell into the toilet as I was still a little dizzy from the anesthesia. But all was well. When I went back, I got to sit in the rolling Barka Lounger. And I got pretzels and Diet Coke! I had joked with the doctor prior to surgery that I hoped my growling stomach didn't distract him from the task at hand! I was HUNGRY!

In the less than five minutes it took me to scarf down my bag of pretzels, the dizzyness went away and Hubby joined me. I got dressed, the nurse when over some stuff, and I sat in a wheelchair to be discharged.

So the verdict was that I did, indeed have a ganglion cyst in my foot. I didn't ask how big it ended up being. I need to ask him that next week when I go back for my follow-up. But he also found a bone spur, which he said is likely what caused it in the first place. So he shaved that down and removed the cyst. That's why it took longer than anticipated, I guess. But's all's good. I go back to see him on Tuesday for a follow-up. I have to keep the ginourmous bandage on until then. Fun, fun.

I have been sitting/lying on the sofa nest since about Noon. I ate, took a Tylenol III, read a few chapters of my book, read my email, read the latest People Magazine, took a codeine-induced nap, and now I'm watching Keeper Boy play Backyard Baseball on the Wii. J-Mav is playing at a friend's house.

We are going to order a movie on TV and some pizza and just hang in the sofa nest tonight. So far, I feel good. I've had my foot elevated all day, which I'm sure helps. I will likely take another Tylenol III soon. I decided there's no point in being a hero. I wasn't when I had children, and there's no need to be now, either. Not that this pain could be anything near THAT pain, but why deal with pain at all?

Still undecided about this weekend's activities... I think I'll remain on the sofa nest at least through tomorrow, which means I'll miss J-Mav's soccer game and end-of-season party, as well as Keeper Boy's hockey game against his team from last year. We'll see what Sunday brings. I may feel the need to fly the coop by then.

Cast of thousands

OK... maybe not THOUSANDS, but I have talked about a lot of people on here since I started, and in some cases, I've referred to the same person by different "code names." Oops. Anyway, here's the a primer... immediate family first, then alphabetical order.

• Hubby -- Obvious, I hope
  
• Keeper Boy -- Eldest son
  
• J-Mav -- Younger son
  
• K-Dog -- Four-legged daughter
  

• BFF -- My best friend
  
• BFF's Hubby -- BFF's husband
  
• Bro -- My brother
  
• D&G -- My youngest cousin on my mom's side and her husband
  
• Dad -- My dad
  
• GmaG -- My mother-in-law (also referred to as MIL in earlier posts)
  
• Jenrie -- My sister-in-law/Uncle Hooter's wife (also referred to as SIL in earlier posts)
  
• Mom -- My mom
  
• N -- My Godson
  
• Nanya -- BFF's mom
  
• RDM -- My eldest cousin on my dad's side of the family
  
• S-Dog -- Uncle Hooter and Jenrie's dog
  
• Spidey -- My nephew (Uncle Hooter/Jenrie's son)... also referred to as JGS in earlier posts
  
• Uncle Hooter -- Hubby's younger brother (also referred to as BIL in earlier posts)
  
• V -- My Goddaughter
  

Going, going, gone...

Well, though the Phillies pushed the series to Game 6, it just wasn't their year this year. The Yankees looked like the better team almost from the start of the series. So no back-to-back world championships for the Phils. Hopefully before spring training starts, the Phillies can tweak a few things (like finding a bullpen) and Ryan Howard can find his bat (he had a glimmer last night) and be right back to the show next year. Third time's a charm!

This is it

Well, today is potentially the last day I'll have full feeling in my foot. I hope not, but there's a pretty good chance I'll end up with some nerve issues from this surgery tomorrow morning... like maybe not being able to feel my pinky toe. Today is DEFINITELY the last day I'll wear anything but sneakers or my flat, black shoes for the next month. I should say, shoe, because I'm going to have a lovely "prescription shoe" on my left foot for a month.

I'm glad I'm finally getting this taken care of. While the cyst does not leave me in constant, excrutiating pain, it is annoying, dull achiness. Not constant. It comes and goes. However, it has come more than it has gone in the past three months. And any type of exercise with even just the slightest impact has become extremely uncomfortable (to include running, zumba, and even walking on the treadmill).

Needless to say -- with pretty much zippo exercise going on -- I'm not exactly rocking Weight Watchers right now (which is why you all haven't seen any updates recently). I won't be able to really do anything for at least a month, so I'm going to have to be really vigilant about what goes in my mouth. Sigh.

Anyway, no food or drink after midnight tonight. (I can have half a can of Diet Coke in the morning, but it has to be at least two hours prior to my arrival at the surgical center... i.e., by 6am.) Surgery is scheduled for 9:10am tomorrow and should last about 45 minutes. Right now I'm not nervous.

Heard...

[After seeing a minivan in the parking lot that looked like ours and was missing the same two hubcaps as ours is...]

"Look Mama, that van is missing the same two hubber caps as ours!"

Thinking...

The World Series is going to be the death of me. Every game since the NLCS started, I've sworn that I'm not staying up for the entire game because I'm so tired. Yet I've seen the bottom of the 9th in every game but one. I'm exhausted!!